In Jiangxia Tongzhi's mind, the place where Tokio Ebihara was supposed to die was a party called the "Izu Mystery Journey."
The host of this party used the forum ID "Dark Night Baron." The Dark Night Baron had invited some people online to the Izu Princess Hotel for a three-day, two-night trip.
During the trip, the organizer would act as the "Dark Night Baron," hiding among the many participants and creating events one after another. Anyone who could discover the true identity of the "Night Baron" would get a prize — a virus also called "Night Baron."
Before this, as soon as Jiangxia saw the name "Tokio Ebihara" on the assassination list, he immediately went to the forum to search for related news.
He found the Night Baron's event post successfully, but the registration had already closed by then.
If you want to pick up ghosts, you either have to be in the same place or spy on someone else's location. This forum didn't have real-name verification, and locations could be transferred.
Jiangxia also remembered that an old friend of Dr. Agasa had signed up for this trip, but just before departure, that person's granddaughter got sick. So, the spot was handed over to Dr. Agasa.
Dr. Agasa wasn't really into computers, and lately, he was busy preparing for a society event, so he didn't have time to travel.
Therefore, Jiangxia figured that if Dr. Agasa had received the invitation, he could just swing by his house to check—and maybe qualify to participate.
Anyway, since the two families were close, it wouldn't hurt to stop by while returning a lunchbox or sharing a meal.
Compared to paying out of pocket and deliberately going to Izu, getting a spot "delivered by others" was less suspicious.
After making this plan, the next day Jiangxia went next door to pester Dr. Agasa for breakfast.
But he showed up too early. Dr. Agasa had stayed up all night doing experiments and still hadn't gotten up.
Jiangxia sighed quietly. The old man deserved to have so little hair left.
First attempt at rubbing the case failed.
Dr. Agasa's "charging time" was unknown. Waiting for him to wake up was unrealistic and way too obvious.
So Jiangxia didn't stay long and went about his business—after delivering a few cat bags, he routinely headed to the detective office, ready to receive invitations and catch up on backlog.
One whole day passed. All cats were delivered, but no invitations came knocking.
Jiangxia claimed he was very calm.
That evening, Jiangxia locked the detective office door and went back to Dr. Agasa's house to grab a meal. At the same time, he launched his second attempt to investigate the case.
This time, Dr. Agasa was awake, but he didn't mention the Izu Mystery Journey—probably because he hadn't received a transferred spot.
However, something more unexpected happened—Jiangxia suddenly got a text message after dinner.
The sender showed as "Kozaburo Hijikata," a middle-aged actor who was fairly famous but lately drowning in scandals.
Not long ago, Jiangxia and Hijikata had appeared together on the same detective variety show.
At that time, Hijikata caught Jiangxia "cheating" in the reasoning game. His attitude flipped 180 degrees—from ignoring Jiangxia to avoiding him, then suddenly smiling and exchanging business cards.
Jiangxia conveniently saved the number.
Now, after receiving the text, Jiangxia unlocked his phone and clicked to read it.
As expected, it was an invitation to be a guest. The reason? Hijikata was about to star in a detective TV series soon and wanted Jiangxia—the famous detective—to tell him about real detective life.
The timing was tight—just tomorrow. The message also had some cryptic additional notes.
Jiangxia sniffed a whiff of trouble from the invitation.
But he didn't mind, because the murderous vibe was even stronger.
Jiangxia happily tapped away and replied, "Must be on time for the appointment."
He still remembered Hijikata Kozaburo's murderous aura.
Looks like after all these days of preparation, Hijikata finally lost his patience and was planning his "kill his wife in front of the detective" act.
Hijikata Kozaburo's recent life had been a mess—he and his wife were cheating on each other, but he was the worse off one, failing to gather proof against her while she had plenty on him.
Now she was extorting him for huge alimony.
Hijikata couldn't beat her fairly, so he decided to flip the table.
He carefully designed a murder method using the house setup and planned to find someone talkative enough to be his "witness." After the crime, he'd clear his name on the spot and conveniently pin the murder on the young neighbor who cuckolded him.
During the last variety show, "tool person" Hijikata exposed Jiangxia's "cheating," making Jiangxia look like a sloppy detective with no reputation or real skill. His ability to solve cases relied entirely on capital and the think tank behind him.
The recent serial murder at the underwater restaurant confirmed this idea for Hijikata.
What's with the shadow on the car accident? Oh, that's just an excuse for Jiangxia not solving the case—the real reason was that the incident happened suddenly in a closed sea, so his think tank couldn't help. Hence, Jiangxia said nothing.
In Hijikata's eyes, Jiangxia was an excellent "witness."
At the last show, Jiangxia looked flustered after being caught cheating. Hijikata claimed to be an old hand in entertainment, able to control timid, indecisive, mentally weak young men like Jiangxia with one hand.
Jiangxia had the handle in his hands and definitely wouldn't dare refuse this invitation.
For safety, Hijikata arranged the meeting time to be very soon after sending the invite, leaving Jiangxia no time to consult his think tank.
Also, after the "ps," Hijikata specifically said this was "friendship guidance"—the two would meet privately and not bring any "strange people" along.
Of course, this "strange person" was a jab at Jiangxia's think tank.
Hijikata finished typing the message and was about to pour a cup of tea.
Just then, the phone rang.
Startled, he looked at the screen—it was Jiangxia replying. The fake detective actually agreed.
And it happened within seconds.
This speed and attitude made Hijikata nod in secret relief.
From this, it seemed Jiangxia really realized the handle was caught by him.
Maybe Jiangxia had been anxiously waiting to be contacted all these days and even put Hijikata on special attention… That's why he replied so fast.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 19/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*